


i'm here.

by mariafuckingcalavera



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Day 5 hurt/comfort, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fair Game Week (RWBY), Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, M/M, Romantic Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23228425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariafuckingcalavera/pseuds/mariafuckingcalavera
Summary: It's been a long night, but they're okay. They will be.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Clover Ebi, Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Kudos: 49





	i'm here.

**Author's Note:**

> day 5 of fairgame week: hurt/comfort! this one's one of my favourites, hope you like it!

His body ached as he stumbled through the door.

He sighed as he closed the door quietly behind him before sliding down to the ground, his entire body protesting against every single one of his actions. The mission Ironwood had sent him and Ruby on had went incredibly sideways, but the supplies had been sent to the launch site, there was no active dust around, and most importantly, Ruby and himself had come out of it unscathed, minus the occasional bruise from a day's job. Despite his semblance, things turned out fine, and he rather think about that than the fact that his muscles ached with every movement.

Though, he had to get up eventually. He skipped dinner because of this mission: he was supposed to arrive back at Atlas at 11pm, he thought he'd be able to make it back in time to catch a late dinner somewhere. Thankfully, Ruby had been smarter than he had been, bringing herself some food for the journey, and he'd rather starve than take food from the kid: it was his mistake after all. With hunger in mind, he stood up despite the protest of his aching muscles, glancing at the electronic clock: _4:18am._ He'd have to be quiet: he knew Clover had a day's worth of missions too, and as much as he wanted to crawl into Clover's arms and fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, he didn't want to disturb him. He'd just make a sandwich, leave a note, and see himself out of Clover's room. He'd get the chance to talk to Clover in the morning, hopefully. He didn't even think he'd be coming by today, but muscle memory and instinct led him back here before he could even register it.

He shuffled over to the open kitchen area, taking out a slice of bread and placing it on a plate before he looked through the fridge. _This man seriously needs to get some damn groceries,_ Qrow found himself thinking to himself as he looked at what his fridge contained: some basil leaves, some leftovers from their lunch at Shopkeep's new diner earlier today, some juice. _When we get a night off, the first thing I'll do is get this guy some damn groceries,_ he thought to himself as he took the basil leaves and some of the leftovers, observing what he could salvage.

"Hey, when did you get back?" Qrow perked up as he heard a voice mumble, still heavy with sleep. He turned towards the hallway to see Clover rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He was clearly tired, but a relieved smile was etched upon his face. Qrow smiled when he saw his sleepy boyfriend walk over from the living room to the kitchen towards him. Clover always looked so cute like this: clad in a crumpled t-shirt and sweatpants, his hair messed up from sleep, his eyes half open with the sweetest, most genuine smile on his face.

"I didn't mean to wake you, lucky charm, you should head back to sleep. It's late." Qrow stated, a hint of concern for his lover present amongst the fields of exhaustion in his voice, but in reality, he was glad he got to see Clover today, for them to have a moment to themselves after back to back missions. Clover's day had been as busy as his: the launch of Amity Colosseum was in a week, which had everyone on edge. In between missions, patrols, Grimm and Ironwood, the two didn't have time to breathe, let alone spend a peaceful moment together. Sure, they saw each other each night, but they didn't have the energy to do much. Most nights, they barely had the energy to acknowledge each other.

"It's fine, I like it better with you around." Clover dismissed as he wrapped his arms around Qrow's waist, his head buried in the crook of his neck. Qrow rolled his eyes, but even he couldn't deny the smile on his face that only grew wider as he continued to put together a sandwich, the comfortable silence settling in them as Clover swayed on his feet slightly, using Qrow as an anchor. They stayed like that for a bit: Qrow, trying to figure out how to make something edible out of the lack of things Clover kept in his kitchen, and the latter holding him close, resting his head in the crook of Qrow's neck, his breath brushing up against it. His strong arms wrapped around his waist, resting on his hips loosely. If Qrow didn't know any better, he would assume that Clover was asleep standing up.

"You didn't eat?" Clover asked, concern in his voice as Qrow carried on making the sandwich.

"Mission went longer than expected, love." Qrow absentmindedly told him.

"How did the mission go?" He asked, and Qrow huffed with frustration at the memory of the chaos that ensued. Ruby was a skilled huntress, sure, but she was still a kid, and in her excitement to test her new dust ammo, combined with his semblance...well, at least they came back alive and unscathed.

"We had to take a detour because of an avalanche, and then we entered a few Grimm hotspots, those took a while to get out of. And then we had to fix the fancy Atlas robot driving the damn convoy, you can read up about it in the report tomorrow morning." He recounted.

"It broke down?" Clover looked up from Qrow's shoulder, his grip tightening slightly at the statement. Qrow turned around to look at him, Clover's hands now resting on his hips.

"Yeah, Ruby was testing out her new dust ammo in one of the hotspots, but she hit the driver. It broke, so she had to fix it mid-battle. We both got out okay, though." Qrow reassured. Clover felt his breath get caught in his throat at his words, how easily Qrow told the story as if he and Ruby weren't inches away from freezing to death, or from getting killed by the Grimm. Grimm hotspots in the tundra were taxing enough: you had to deal with the freezing cold, the blizzards, the hail, snowstorms as well as the Grimm that grew resistant to the cold weather over hundreds of years. Then there was the darkness of night, making it infinitely harder to see due to it being so late at night due to neither of them being a Faunus, and then the driver got hit by Ice Dust ammunition. Any single one of those reasons could be the one to shatter their aura: one slip up, one mistake that was just so easy for any skilled huntsmen to make...

The images of their bloodstained corpses in the snow instilled pure terror into his bones, the image one that he couldn't hide, one he couldn't shake.

"Sounds intense, I'm glad you guys are safe." Clover replied with a relieved tone, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. After all, it was late, and Qrow must have been tired beyond belief. He didn't want to keep him awake, he'd rather they have this talk when he was fully rested. But even Clover wasn't lucky sometimes: Qrow had noticed every single sign. From Clover's tight grip on his waist, to the way his shoulders tensed up slightly as a way to hide the worry he felt. Qrow could feel him tense up against his back when he mentioned multiple Grimm hotspots, seen it in his eyes widening when he talked about the driver, the fear hidden behind his irises after he had finished his rundown. He was good at hiding it from the average person, but Qrow wasn't just anybody, not to Clover.

"Yeah. Takes more than bad luck to shake us, the kid's more skilled than some huntsmen I know." Qrow brushed off with a smile, trying to cheer him up. Clover hummed in agreement, but Qrow could feel his distress radiating off him, he could feel the increasing pressure from Clover's fingers, he could see the stoic soldier desperately scrambling to fall back to attention as a way to hide his emotions. He could see his inner struggle. Something was clearly wrong, and if Qrow learned one thing from Clover, it was to always talk about things like this.

"Are _you_ okay, though? You're worked up, something's wrong." Qrow pushed on, his hand rising to cup Clover's face, and he leaned into Qrow's touch, relaxing the slightest bit at the gesture. One of his hands stopped the iron grip on his hip and went up to Qrow's hand, his fingers intertwining with Qrow's as he looked away.

"I was worried about you earlier, when you didn't meet me here. I thought you just went to your own room because you were tired or something, but when I didn't see you there and checked that you weren't back from your mission, I thought you'd..." Clover trailed off, and Qrow understood fully well what he meant. Qrow knew of Clover's anxiety: the way he first showed it to Qrow was practically the dictionary definition of the word.

It was a mission to investigate some dust mines after subterranean Grimm had been spotted, the mission being the last mission of the day after hours of back to back missions for everyone. Qrow remembered the hordes of Grimm they had tried to fend off, how there was more Grimm than the dust miners had seen. He remembered shoving Clover out of the way from a hit that surely would have killed him, taking the hit instead. Qrow thought he would understand: the Aura levels on their Scrolls could prove that Qrow had enough Aura to survive the hit and Clover didn't. He knew Clover would understand that it was a tactical decision just as much as it was an emotional one, but he vaguely remembered how much Clover's hands shook as he cleaned and bandaged his wounds, as he sobbed and cried, begging Qrow to stay alive, breaking down and shattering in front of him. Everything was a blur after that, but the kids helped him fill in the blanks: how he stayed at the hospital until he was allowed to see him, how it took Ironwood, Nora, Yang, Ren and Ruby's combined efforts to him to leave Qrow's side and go home, to get some proper rest. Clover told Qrow about his anxiety the next time he saw him, how he feared losing the people he loved, how his version of abandonment was more mental than physical, telling him everything he felt like Qrow needed to know: how it manifested, how he couldn't help it some days.

And now, Qrow saw every single sign that led him to it: the tight grip on his hips, the infinitesimal tremble in his lip as tears formed in his eyes, threatening to spill. The desire to hold him close, to keep him there, to keep him safe.

Qrow placed a finger on Clover's lips, silencing him before he could continue: they didn't need words right now, they didn't need to shatter the silence with things they both knew to be true. Qrow's finger slowly fell from Clover's lips as he moved to cradle Clover's face in his hands, bringing his face closer as his own eyes fluttered close, Qrow's lips kissing Clover's affectionately, reassuringly. Clover sighed into the kiss, melting into it, the crease on his brow smoothing out as he kissed Qrow back, relaxing and loosening his hold on his hips, moving to pull him closer by the waist. _I'm here_ , Qrow breathed against Clover's lips, his arms moved lower to his shoulders. _I'm right here._

_Thank god for that,_ Clover gasped before he deepened the kiss, tilting his head to make it easier, dragging out this moment the longest they could. It was nights like this when Clover thanked every force in the universe that led him to Qrow Branwen. It was nights like this when nothing else existed, and he wanted it to stay that way. He would spend eternity like this: safe and sound, kissing the person he loved with kisses and affection at four in the morning.

Even as they broke away to breathe, they let themselves savour the moment in silence, time slowing to a stop as they just stood there, holding each other in silent reassurances. The wandering crow had been searching for a home and found it in the luckster's arms, in his lips, in those teal green eyes that crinkled at the corners when he laughed. And in turn, Clover allowed his walls to come crumbling down and his emotions to run free, knowing that Qrow would ground him before he fell too fast, fell too deep, knowing that Qrow would be there to save him every single time.

"I love you." Clover whispered, a smile on his face.

"I love you too." Qrow responded, meaning every word.


End file.
